We've got some very interesting news coming out of the Google camp today, as it's been revealed that the cloud-based Google Stadia service has closed its internal studios and has no plans to make in-house games moving forward.
The news broke in a report by Kotaku earlier this afternoon, and was verified by an official PR statement from Google, explaining that the company had come to the decision due to the costs involved and the brand's current focus:
"Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially. Given our focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships, we’ve decided that we will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development team SG&E, beyond any near-term planned games."
As a result, veteran producer Jade Raymond has decided to leave the company, and Google says it will use 2021 to "expand our efforts to help game developers and publishers take advantage of our platform technology and deliver games directly to their players":
"We see an important opportunity to work with partners seeking a gaming solution all built on Stadia’s advanced technical infrastructure and platform tools. We believe this is the best path to building Stadia into a long-term, sustainable business that helps grow the industry."
Google Stadia seemingly has no plans to shut down for good, then, but from an Xbox perspective, today's news certainly makes Xbox's Project xCloud service look a more enticing prospect for fans of cloud-based gaming moving forward. And for the developers who are now unfortunately out of a job, it'll be interesting to see if any of them make their way to one of the many Xbox Game Studios teams in the near future.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments below.
[source blog.google, via kotaku.com]
Comments 16
It was doomed from the beginning, Destined to fail..
Hopefully this also means they are off the market to aquire game developers.
"Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment"
And nobody in google was smart enough to know that and consider it from start?
I'm surprised Stadia is still going. My wife got sent the controller, Chromecast Ultra and a month of Stadia Pro for free, they're that desperate. If they couldn't capitalise on COVID-19 literally forcing most of the planet's population indoors and begging for something to do, then the thing is even more f**led than we all assumed from the beginning.
@VenomousAlbino I dare bet they were trying to clear warehouses. That controller might become a collectors item (I got one myself.)
Even if they continue the service simply as a platform for others, Im sure they will eventually rely entirely on third party controllers, just like Steam does.
"Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially.“
Pretty sure this is why MS is acquiring studios instead of building them up from scratch. There are too many established IPs out there and they need to play catch up quickly. Still a significant investment, but they get known IPs immediately instead of 10 years from now.
@Hypnotoad107 Exactly. Imagine if Microsoft were to attempt to build up a massive powerhouse like Bethesda from the ground-up. It would take decades and the costs would be WAY more than the $7.5 billion they paid for ZeniMax. Not to mention that strong brand recognition (e.g. Fallout, Elder Scrolls) is not something that can be guaranteed either even if you spend decades making games for new franchises.
@Hypnotoad107 exact building a studio ground up takes quite a bit.
Not even just microsoft but even sony rarely builds its own studos.
The Google Stadia situation reminds me a bit of Mixer's outlook earlier this past year. Most of the world at home, gaming exploding, and yet no subscriber brags, no big announcements, etc. I bet the numbers are shockingly bad behind the scenes.
Google can obviously absorb virtually any losses or slow start, but it does make me wonder if they end up licensing the tech (to China probably).
That's it, isn't long now until Google announces the shutdown of Stadia. Knew this would happen, Google is notorious for giving up on things and Stadia is the type of thing where it only worked for a small minority of people.
Oh thank goodness Jade is free! She's gone from one disaster studio to be chained to the next ever since leaving ubi. She's the real mind behind original assassin's creed design. Maybe she can get back to top designs again finally.
Wonder if MS spending spree called Google's bluff.
I have gigabit internet and stadia for multiplayer and especially competitive couldn’t compete with the xbox or PlayStation in that regular there was just to much input lag, and anyone who says otherwise either hasn’t noticed it or is just saying this as it’s what they use. Pcmag did a write up and the input lag for stadia vs pc was nearly double you can feel it when you know what the game feels like without it...
The fact that Google killed the developer of "Journey to the Savage Planet", really peeves me off.
As long as they keep bringing big third party games to the service I'll be happy. I've played more games on Stadia in the last year than I have on my Xbox One since launch.
I still like the idea of Stadia and am happy to have tried it occasionally since day 1 but their approach has been terrible.
From awful PR and a lack of transparency to now completely giving up their own game development ideas it's baffling to work out what the hell they were thinking throughout this.
To be clear I don't think Stadia failed because it was a Streaming service, it failed because of
Streaming still has a BIG future, less with us the enthusiasts who are happy to invest upfront in an expensive box to get the best frame rate and resolution, but with the masses.
When Game Pass is built into a TV as an app and all you need is a TV/Tablet + a controller + a one month payment this will open up mid-high level gaming to a huge amount of the population.
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